The bishops’ conference has welcomed a ruling by the High Court of Justice in Israel against the extension of the separation wall that would have deprived 58 Christian families of their land.
Israel’s top court last week ruled that the planned extension of the wall through the Cremisan Valley “violated the rights” of the people of the town of Beit Jala.
Bishop Declan Lang, the head of the bishops’ International Affairs Department, said on Tuesday he was “delighted” at the ruling, which he said “rightly puts paid to any attempts to weaken the status of Christians in this southern part of Palestine”.
The Vatican has warned that the wall extension would destroy vineyards, groves and orchards and separate residents of Beit Jala from their land. It would also have divided two nineteenth-century Salesian monasteries and a convent school.
Bishop Lang's communiqué on Tuesday noted that the court has instructed the Israeli Government to plan a new route, although it has set no timeframe for the new plans.
“I am against all walls that separate communities from each other, let alone from their lands and their properties,” Bishop Lang said.
The ruling ends a high-profile campaign. In 2012 the then-Archbishop Vincent Nichols raised the issue with the then-foreign secretary William Hague, who told him he shared his concerns.
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